Kathleen McCowin was arrested and jailed in San Francisco for protesting the exposure of children to the chemicals used in synthetic turf athletic fields -- and to the politics that are allowing this to happen. Kathleen has released the following statement:

"I am Kathleen McCowin, President of Soccer Parents and Coaches for Grass Fields in Golden Gate Park. We believe that playing on artificial turf and ground-up tire waste infill poses a serious risk to the health of our children.

This is the core reason why last week I stood down approaching construction vehicles, held my ground while having my outstretched palm hit multiple times by a charging pickup truck, stood fast while being verbally threatened with being run over, and ultimately went to jail.

This industrial waste material containing multiple carcinogens has not been tested in animals. This means its first real testing has been on our children. For me personally, this “testing” was on my daughter Liz while playing soccer in high school on the Crocker Amazon fields.

NBC Network News has recently reported a cancer cluster in young soccer goalies playing on this toxic waste material. Dr. David R Brown, the former CDC toxicologist who authored a 2007 report calling for appropriate studies of this material, has stated he is not surprised.

Our concern is that these goalies, with their much higher exposure to the toxic crumb, are tragically the canaries in the toxic turf mine shaft. It is likely a much larger number of players will suffer from cancer in the future.